The Proletariat

The Proletariat
The Proletariat's original lineup, left to right: Tom McKnight, Frank Michaels, Peter Bevilacqua, and Richard Brown.
Background information
Origin	Southeastern Massachusetts, United States
Genres	Hardcore punk post-punk noise rock art punk
Years active	1980–1985, 2016
Labels	Modern Method Non-U Radiobeat Homestead
Associated acts	Churn The Lumen Band Idle Rich
Website	theproletariat.com proletariatband.com
Members	Richard Brown Peter Bevilacqua Tom McKnight Don Sanders
Past members	Frank Michaels Laurel Ann Bowman Steve Welch

The Proletariat are a punk rock band from Southeastern Massachusetts, whose heyday was during the 1980s, when they were active in the early Boston hardcore scene, sharing the bill with many of the best punk and hardcore punk acts of the time, despite their recorded output having a decidedly non-hardcore aesthetic; the Proletariat show more strongly the musical influences of early British post-punk bands such as Wire and the Gang of Four in their fractured guitar sound and Marxist-themed lyrics.

The Proletariat formed in early 1980 as a cover band playing obscene versions of Sex Pistols songs at hardcore punk shows in the Boston area. Belligerent british-sounding American singer Richard Brown fronted the group with two friends, both former classmates of his at Apponequet Regional High School: guitarist Frank Michaels and bassist Peter Bevilacqua. The three had enrolled at Southeastern Massachusetts University together, where they studied history, finance, and industrial relations, respectively, but, after exposure to left-wing politics and despite having no previous musical experience, all dropped out of college during their senior year to form a punk band, which Brown would name the Proletariat. In wanting to align themselves with the working class, Brown took work as a delivery truck driver, Bevilacqua as a supermarket clerk, and Michaels devoted himself to managing the band.

Brown initially played snare drum standing up while he sang, until the slightly younger Tom McKnight, who worked as a gas station attendant, completed the band as its drummer in September 1980, occasionally accompanied by Brown on cowbell. After a few months of practicing at Brown's parental home in Assonet, the group played their first gig on February 14, 1981 at the Lafayette Club in Taunton. By mid-1981, after playing a few shows in Southeastern Massachusetts, doing mainly Pistols covers, the Proletariat evolved a new sound that melded the straight-ahead sound of early records by the Clash with more angular rhythms and agitprop political rhetoric under the influence of the Gang of Four and the minimalist experimentalism of Wire. They grew into a sound unlike other Boston punk or hardcore bands, characterized by drums holding an almost militaristic steadiness while guitars alternated between jarring upstrokes and overdriven chords. People drew comparisons of the band's music to that of the anarchist group Crass and post-punk group the Fall, bands that the Proletariat's members only listened to after fans tipped them off to it.